Bozell: Elite Media Ignored Climategate

Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, tells Newsmax that the mainstream media virtually ignored the climategate scandal because it shows global warming to be a “fraud.”

Bozell, who also runs the Cybercast News Service, criticized the broadcast networks’ treatment of the healthcare reform issue as well, but said Internet news sites and talk radio have now broken the left’s monopoly on information.

The climategate scandal erupted when someone hacked a server used by the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in England, and disseminated e-mail and other documents that point to collusion by climate scientists to skew information in favor of manmade global warming.

Newsmax.TV’s Ashley Martella asked why the mainstream media have not given climategate the coverage it deserves even in the days leading up to the international climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Because if it were covered it would show the American people, it would show the world, that this global warming ‘settled science’ is a fraud,” said Bozell, whose organization tracks liberal bias in the media.

“This is East Anglia University. For years the media have been telling us that they were the experts on global warming. Now we know, based on these e-mails, that they’ve been cooking the books. We know that they’ve been changing the numbers.

“The fact is, the planet has been getting cooler and their research showed that it’s been getting cooler, so they’ve been playing with the numbers. It blows to pieces the global warming momentum.

“If you’re a journalist and you’re out for the truth, you’re out to be balanced and fair, you have an obligation not [only] to report this but to investigate it. This is a huge story. Woodward and Bernstein didn’t report Watergate, they investigated Watergate. And what you’ve gotten from the broadcast networks is a whitewash. It’s really despicable.”

Asked if the broadcast networks have an “agenda” when it comes to global warming, Bozell replied:

“No question about it at all. Numerous reporters have talked about it being settled science. They believe it. They run specials on global warming. They’ve invested their credibility in a theory that now has been discredited.”

Bozell likened the mainstream media’s failure to cover climategate to their failure to adequately cover Van Jones, who resigned as President Obama’s green jobs czar after Internet news site and talk radio exposed remarks he had made in the past — including that George Bush was responsible for 9/11. The mainstream media also failed to cover the ACORN videotaping scandal.

“Now you’ve got climategate,” Bozell said.

“It took them two weeks to cover this story. This is preposterous. This is no attempt whatsoever at objectivity.”

Turning to healthcare, Bozell criticized the mainstream media for inadequate coverage of the healthcare reform compromise, which purports to take the public option off the table but expand coverage of Medicare.

“It’s amazing to see the stories that are out right now, where the public option has been taken off the table,” Bozell said.

“All you have to do is to study the story a little bit to find out there’s nothing like that of the sort.

“What’s happened is that the public option has been taken off the table, but what you have is a proposal whereby the Office of Personnel Management will have to oversee and approve any private insurance plan. And if they don’t like it, then the government has the right to take it over. It’s the same thing.”

The media have also been glossing over the compromise’s effects on Medicare, Bozell charged.

“This new compromise vastly expands Medicare to anyone who is now age 55. Medicare is scheduled to become insolvent in 2017. There’s no money to pay for that. And there’s no coverage about the fact that one of two things is going to happen: One is that it’s going to go bankrupt sooner, or secondly, there are going to be massive new tax increases.”

Bozell recalled that Democrats insisted the stimulus bill had to be voted on immediately “because the more you looked at it the less you liked it.”

He said: “The same formula applies for national healthcare, which is why this compromise is being hammered out in the dead of night behind closed doors. We don’t know what the costs are, but as I said it’s either going to bankrupt the country or it’s going to cause massive new tax increases for the American people. There’s no other way.”

Martella asked if Web sites like Bozell’s and Newsmax, which do cover topics like climategate, are enough to balance out the lack of coverage from the mainstream media.

“Why was it that Van Jones was thrown under the proverbial bus by Barack Obama if there was no coverage?” he answered. “Because the American people came to know exactly who he was because of the Internet and talk radio.

“Why was it that for 25 years conservatives have tried to do something about ACORN, and yet these two kids were able to do it overnight, with one playing a pimp and other playing a prostitute. Overnight they discredit ACORN and get it defunded. Why was there a rush to do something about ACORN if it got no coverage? Again, talk radio and the Internet. With climategate the same thing is happening.

“We have to work a lot harder. We have to tell our story a lot more forcefully. But at the end of the day the equation has changed dramatically. You can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube. With the Internet and talk radio, the left no longer has a monopoly on information in America.”

Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, tells Newsmax that the mainstream media virtually ignored the climategate scandal because it shows global warming to be a “fraud.”Bozell, who also runs the Cybercast News Service, criticized the broadcast...